Ash Center
Harvard University April 29, 2014
Imagining Civic Engagement for
Peacebuilding in the Context of
Strong Oral Society:
Maluku-Indonesia Case
Izak Lattu
Interdisciplinary Studies of Religion
Indonesia
My Research Location
Orality and Malukan Narrative
The history of written ink does not speak. It is
the kapata that tells the story
(Mainoro’s
One
Blood )
Malukan Forest of Symbols
A Muslim Pillar in a Christian Church
A Christian Pillar in a Muslim Mosque
Research Method
• Ethnographic
research
• Interdisciplinary
Malukan conflict and Political
Transition in Indonesia
The Withdrawal of Soeharto in 1998
Timor Leste’s Independence from Indonesia in 1999
• The Spices Islands.
• Interface of Trades and Religions
• 1512 –
Portuguese
Military Approach: 17 Battalions of
Indonesian Armed Forces in Maluku
What holds Malukan
collective memory?
Folksong, Ethnicity, and Identity
•
Malukan topoi of collective imagination
imagination: Pop, Dangdut, Hip Hop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x6u-Ritual and Social Integration
Food and Community Performance and Identity
Overlapping of Religion and Culture
Festivals
Kinship Folksongs Church Music in an Islamic Festival
Malukan Local Peacebuilding
Oral Forms of Civic
Engagement Elite based Conflict Resolution
Military Approach
Conclusion
• The example of peacebuilding in Malukan shows
the importance of oral forms of civic engagement in a strong oral society.
• In the context where collective memory is stored
orally, people nurture social integration through performances, folksongs, and oral narratives.
• Gover e t’s pu li poli ies for the for atio of
community belonging in the strong oral society have to deal the interface between written public policy and oral forms of cultural identity.
